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Project October 4, 2024

When Books Sink Underwater in Assam

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Tamara Gao resident Vishnu Deng enters his chang ghar, a traditional Mising house designed to be on stilts to avoid floods. Image by Ananya Chetia. India, 2024.

This project examines how annual floods damage rural schools in Assam, India, and prevent primary students from accessing their education. Pulitzer Center Fellow Ananya Chetia reports on schools operated by rural communities and Assam's Mising tribe, an Indigenous group that has been accustomed to floods for centuries.

Campuses supporting mostly Mising students lose up to two weeks of school because of floods and the diseases that come with it. One headmaster even noted that without an access to drinking water and a restroom, Mising families have had to go to the forests or use the boat itself as a toilet.

Despite such hardships, schools are continuing to run with limited government assistance and temporary solutions developed by teachers.

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